Li Wen

Galactic Calendar.

December 28, 225.

Huaxia Kingdom.

Qingshi No.3 High School.

Under the blazing sun, a group of high school students in matching uniforms had gathered on the track field.

Today was the final Flesh Rank test of the semester for Qingshi No.3 High School's Grade 12 students.

Various instruments had been set up across the spacious track field.

Under the proctoring teachers' watchful eyes, all the students from Class 21, Grade 12, lined up to take their turns at the testing machines.

Class 21 wasn't very large. It had only a little over forty students.

When the school had opened its classes, it had planned to have only twenty.

The extra Class 21 was naturally made up of students who hadn't met the admission requirements but had gotten in through various means.

Some had used the power of money, while others had relied on connections.

Li Wen belonged to the former group.

His family had tightened their belts to scrape together fifty thousand Huaxia Coins and send him to the county's third public high school.

"Li Wen!"

"Comprehensive Flesh Rank: 6.0."

A mechanical voice announced the score of a lean boy who had just finished his Flesh Rank test.

"Only 6.0?" Hearing the mechanical voice, Li Wen's eyes dimmed.

He trained hard every single day, yet as time went on, the gap between him and the top students in his class only grew wider.

If things continued like this, forget getting into any prestigious university. He'd be lucky to get into even the lowest-ranked one.

In previous years, the minimum application requirement for a Martial Arts University had been a Flesh Rank of 7.0. That meant he didn't even qualify to apply.

Was he really going to take the literary path, just as his name suggested?

For a moment, Li Wen couldn't help picturing his parents' hopeful, expectant eyes.

His middle school entrance exam results hadn't been good enough to get him into No.3 High School's martial arts class. He'd only gotten in because his parents had scrimped and saved until they had enough money.

He'd thought that as long as he worked hard, he'd be able to make something of himself.

But after two and a half years, he'd come to understand one thing: hard work alone wasn't nearly enough.

Developing the body efficiently required all kinds of nourishing medicines, and those cost a great deal of money.

The school did provide some of these medicines for free, but the supply was limited, and they weren't handed out equally. Instead, the amount each student received depended on their ranking.

That meant falling behind once made it harder to catch up.

It wasn't that the school didn't want to provide more. In the end, resources were simply limited.

The finest steel had to be used where it mattered most.

This world wasn't an ordinary one. It was full of dangers.

Beast hordes roamed the land, and humanity was in decline.

Naturally, the limited resources had to be directed toward the talented.

What left Li Wen bitter was that if he gave up on martial arts, then given how impossibly competitive the literary subjects had become, his academic scores wouldn't save him.

Most likely, he'd spend his entire life scraping by at the bottom.

Just like his parents, working themselves to the bone for barely enough to eat.

"Ding-a-ling~"

Before long, the school day ended.

Li Wen slung his schoolbag over his shoulder and walked out of the school gates alone.

With the exception of Li Wen, nearly everyone in Class 21 came from a well-off or influential family.

That made him stand out starkly from his classmates, like a fish out of water.

For the past two and a half years, he'd been on his own almost all the time.

He tapped his student card against the reader at the front of the bus, then found a seat in the corner.

The bus passed stop after stop. Li Wen stayed aboard until the final one, then got off through the rear doors.

By then, the surroundings had changed completely. Dilapidated, old apartment blocks stretched in every direction.

Li Wen made his way to one of the buildings as if he knew it by heart, then lowered his head and climbed the dim stairwell, one step at a time.

In a remote, run-down building like this, an elevator was out of the question.

In the cramped stairwell, Li Wen occasionally passed people going up or down.

He'd lived here for so many years that most of them knew one another. After exchanging greetings with several people, Li Wen stopped at the fifteenth floor.

Apartment 1503 was the home where he'd lived for seventeen... No, to be precise, almost eighteen years.

Because today was his eighteenth birthday.

He unlocked the door and stepped inside.

The living room wasn't large, perhaps a little over twenty square meters.

A bookshelf stood directly in front of him, covered with all sorts of items.

Behind it was a fabric sofa. Though old, it was still very clean and tidy.

Opposite the sofa was a table, where a beautifully wrapped cake sat.

Through the transparent cake box, he could easily see the candle shaped like an "18" on top.

"Ah Wen, you're home?" Hearing the door open, Li Wen's mother, Wang Juan, came out wearing an apron and holding a spatula.

"Mom!" Li Wen tore his gaze from the cake and looked at the woman in front of him, whose hair had already turned quite gray. His nose began to sting. "You really didn't have to buy a cake."

"How much could one cake cost? Today's your eighteenth birthday, Ah Wen. After today, you'll be an adult."

Wang Juan waved the spatula in her hand. "Go take a shower. Dinner will be ready soon. I made your favorite braised lion's head meatballs."

"Mm!" Li Wen swallowed the words on the tip of his tongue and nodded firmly.

He put down his schoolbag and headed for the bathroom.

The afternoon's physical test had left his clothes soaked with sweat. They'd dried by now, but clinging to his skin still felt awful.

After taking off all his clothes, Li Wen adjusted the water to a comfortable temperature and let it spray over him.

The warm water quickly enveloped him and ran down his lean, well-defined frame.

He closed his eyes and tilted his head back, silently feeling the warm water wash over his face. This was the most relaxing moment of Li Wen's day.

By the time Li Wen finished washing and came out, Wang Juan had finished cooking.

Four dishes and a soup had been laid out across the living room table.

The braised lion's head meatballs Li Wen loved most sat right in the middle.

Their appetizing aroma wafted over, making his mouth water.

"Ah Wen, go ahead and eat while it's hot. Your dad just called to say he'll probably be another ten minutes or so." Wang Juan handed Li Wen a set of bowls and chopsticks.

"I'm not in a hurry. Let's wait until Dad gets home and eat together." Li Wen took them, then set them back down on the table.

"Then have one lion's head meatball while you wait. It won't taste as good once it gets cold." As she spoke, Wang Juan placed one in Li Wen's bowl.

"Mm, thanks, Mom." The afternoon's physical test had already left Li Wen drained, and this was his favorite food. With his stomach growling, he didn't put up much of a fight.

A little over ten minutes later, Father Li returned home. His eyes clearly showed his exhaustion, but he still wore a beaming smile. "Ah Wen, happy birthday!"

With that, he handed Li Wen the gift box he'd brought with him.

"Thanks, Dad!" Li Wen hurried to his feet and took the gift box from Father Li.

After dinner, the family of three sat together.

The cake box had been removed, and Father Li lit the birthday candle with a lighter.

"Ah Wen, hurry and make a wish~" Wang Juan turned off the living room lights, then sat down with a happy smile.

"Mm~" Li Wen nodded and closed his eyes.

Just as a wish formed in his mind, the world spun around him, and countless memories appeared out of nowhere.

The memories unfolded into scene after scene, all of them showing the life of another Li Wen over the course of eighteen years.

At long last, after eighteen years, he had awakened the Prior Wisdom of his past life.

"So I've lived through another eighteen years..." Li Wen murmured to himself.

It happened in the blink of an eye. From the moment the memories appeared to the moment Li Wen had fully accepted them, barely an instant had passed.

To his parents watching from outside, Li Wen had only had his eyes closed for a few seconds.

But when Li Wen opened his eyes, he froze. A column of text had appeared before him:

[Name: Li Wen]

[Age: 18]

[Profession: Locked]